“What? That’s crazy.”
“He said he’s undercover. What he’s doing is pretending to be in love with you so he can strike when you’re not expecting it. You think there’s a conspiracy, that someone’s targeting the Fringers. Well, guess what? Your boyfriend is targeting you.” He jabbed his finger within an inch of her nose. “You can say all you want, but you’ve got a thing for him. Your bad judgment where men is concerned brought an enemy right into our camp.”
“Wait.” She shook her head, unable to even fathom what Jessup was insinuating. “What exactly did you overhear?”
“Someone named Mia was all pissed.”
“Mia is his sister.”
“Well, that makes sense. She was all over him about not telling her the truth. Because the guy lies.” He nodded to punctuate that.
Kade wasn’t in love with her. Why those words hit her hardest, she didn’t know. And of course, they’d only recently gotten to know each other, so it wasn’t love. But it felt like…in love.
“You’re sure he said he was supposed to kill me?” she asked.
“The woman said his assignment was to kill you, kind of a question. Even with my Dragon hearing, I couldn’t tell the context. But he said yes.”
She processed that. It explained why Kade had come here, why he’d sneaked up on her instead of calling like any normal person would. If she hadn’t sensed him, she’d be dead. But she had, so he’d had to concoct a story. Her blood felt as though it were thickening by the second, slowing her heartbeat. Seducing her must have come easy for him. She tangled her fingers in the fabric of her shirt. Even worse, she’d been the one to invite him—no, order him—to her bedroom. She’d responded to his touch, his magick, so easily.
I’m a bad, bad man, Vee.
She turned her focus from the ache in her chest to her brothers. “What were you doing out there anyway?”
Jessup tapped his chest. “I’m keeping an eye on things, a good idea right now. I never trusted that guy. I heard the part of the conversation about his assignment and went to get Ryan. Your boy was telling this Mia that he was going to ‘take care of you’ when I came back. Take care…as in kill you. What I don’t understand is why the hell would the Guard want you dead?”
“I went to them.” The words dropped out like stones.
Both her brothers stared as if she’d grown a second nose. Finally, Jessup spoke. “I know I didn’t hear you say you went to the Guard.”
“I was desperate. I went to report Arlo’s murder. I wanted them to look into it, hoping their investigation would prevent any more bloodshed.” She told them about Ferro’s map and the pins. “They know what’s going on, yet Kade’s boss dismissed me. Soon after, Kade showed up here.” To kill her. “He gave me some story about coming on his own to investigate because it didn’t feel right. And I believed him. He went back to headquarters to get more information, but his boss blew him off, too.”
Jessup sneered. “That’s what he told you.”
She pushed on, filling them in on everything that happened. “Kade and I fought her together. She would have killed him, and Kade would have killed her, too, if either had the chance. That was real.” But what about everything else?
“And you don’t think we would have helped you?” Jessup said, a growl in his voice.
“You’d help all right, going off and killing the wrong people and starting another war. Kade is level-headed, not emotionally involved with the clans. He could find out things on the Guard end, so I accepted his help. If he were planning to take me out, he’s had plenty of opportunities.” She held on to that truth. How many times had they been alone, including earlier that morning?
Jessup shook his head. “Who knows what he’s up to?”
“Except the barn wall,” Ryan said with a laugh.
Jessup gave her one of his satisfied smirks. “I grabbed the cuff off the barn wall. He wasn’t easy to take down, least ’til I got the cuff on him.” He gave Ryan a nod. “Let’s go take care of him.”
The two turned to the front door. She ran after them, knowing what that meant. But was it the same way Kade had meant it? “I’m coming, too. Let me talk to him.”
“No way, little sis. He’ll give you some story, and you’ll be all, Oh, please, don’t kill him.”
She grabbed Jessup’s arm, halting him. “I brought him into this, and I’ll deal with him. I’m not going to be swayed by anything but the truth.” If she could tell the difference.
They both gave her a skeptical look, and a grunt that meant they weren’t agreeing but they weren’t disagreeing. For now.
“Have you talked to him yet?” she asked as they continued through the woods.
“No, he was out cold. Dragon foot connecting with human head equals a KO. It always amazes me how heavy dead weight is.”
“But…he’s alive?”
